So it is day 7 on the low carb lifestyle. I tend to call it a diet but it has to be a lifestyle. This is my 4th attempt in the past 20 years - 3 times before I have gone on the Atkins diet religiously for 4 months and didn't cheat at all. Each time I have lost 45 pounds. At that point, for some reason, I would go back to eating carbs and slowly gain the weight back.
This time my goal is to make it a lifestyle and not go off the program. Of course my mini goal is to break the 45 lb barrier.
If I can do that When I do that I will feel so much better and mentally feel successful.
I read a lot of blogs and forums on the Atkins, South Beach, Protein Power or other low carb diets and I have seen where some people have a one time shot at losing with the program, and when they go off and come back at a later date, they do not get the same fast results. Fortunately this has never happened to me. I have lost 7 pounds in the first week and am thrilled. I think the repeat dieters might be a little to liberal in their food choices and learned a little low carb cheats from the first time around.
I have to be careful though. I know from experience I cannot go by "net carbs" - this is when they take the actually carbohydrate grams and subtract the fiber grams and come up with the net carbs (ex: 10 carb grams - 7 fiber grams = 3 net carbs). If I count this way I usually don't gain, but I don't lose either.
Other people, however, like my mother, lose good by counting "net carbs". So if you are doing the low carb lifestyle experiment and see what works for you.
I do as a treat occasionally have an Atkins bar (tastes like a candy). If net carbs work for you, the prepackaged snacks and baked good are a great help - you feel like you can have a treat.
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