These two weeks of induction are the most important weeks because they help cleanse your body of junk so that you can start feeling better, lighter and more energetic, to help cleanse your palate so that good, nutritious food can start tasting better to you, and to help you get rid of the cravings that imprison you.  During these two weeks, you will feel terrible while these poisons are being flushed out of your body, but after two weeks or less, you will be surprised at how good you will feel and it will be a bright new start to a new you!  You may even feel that you can do Induction for longer, and if you have a lot to lose, then it may be a good idea.  Just make sure that you start working through the other phases after about 4 months.  Remember, Induction is temporary!!

During this cleansing period of Induction, it is beneficial to you to not eat anything off the induction list, as you are trying to regulate your body’s system (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.) and trying to get rid of cravings for higher carb foods.  This is harder, if not impossible, to do if you keep eating sweets and grains.  You can work those in later.  While doing this phase, it is important to be strict and LEARN what you are doing and how to do it properly.  How to read your body is probably the most important lesson you will learn from Induction.

No!  This is the most incredible lesson I learned from Atkins.  I have been doing Atkins for 5+ years.  I was on the borderline to high cholesterol when I started and within 3 weeks, it went down.  I have had perfect cholesterol readings for 5 years and my triglycerides are at 56!  I also had high blood pressure and it has been perfect for 4 years.  It immediately went down after starting Atkins.  When you do Atkins, you are cutting out trans-fats, the bad fats that are pumped into most junk food, and well…pretty much anything processed.  With Atkins you are eating healthy fats that your body needs.  Healthy fats regulate your cholesterol levels within normal range.  Trans-fats are a big no-no when doing Atkins.  They are not natural and do you a lot of harm. Unfortunately, they are in a lot of highly processed foods.  Learn to eat a more natural diet.

As you lose weight, you work off less calories doing normal everyday things.  When you started, you may have been lugging around 20+ pounds more than you are now.  If you were carrying around 20 lb weights with you everywhere you went, wouldn’t you work off more now?  It stands to reason that you would lose more, right?  The less you weigh, the more you have to work out, and the less fuel you have to consume, which is great because Atkins will help your appetite decrease. It is a wonderful effect of Atkins.  The other reason could be that when you started, you were losing a lot of water, which is usually the case in the first two weeks or so, especially on Atkins.  Be patient!!  You didn’t gain it overnight, and you won’t lose it overnight either, but it will happen if you stick to it!  Normally, a person loses about a pound of fat a week.

This is because the world is made to profit.  No demand, no supply.  If we demand it and buy it, then the stores will supply it.  Unfortunately, our nation is hooked on carbs and they are addictive.  When you eat high carbs, you crave them and your appetite increases, which puts you in that vicious cycle that you are well familiar with, I’m sure! There were about 100 low carb stores in the southeast United States in 2005. Today, the only one I know of that is still open in the LoCarb Connection.

People will always gain weight back when they go back to the way they ate before they lost the weight.  You gained weight before on the way you ate, so why wouldn’t you gain weight on it now?  The weight will come back fast, as your body liked being bigger and was used to it.  When you lose weight, the body thinks it is going through a famine, so when you start feeding it more stuff higher in carbs, it begins to store up for the next famine.  The key is to not go back to the way you ate before, but to find a new normal.  Believe me, after being over 300 lbs for 20 years, you can make a new lifestyle and stick to it.  It’s not hard, I find my life and eating habits very satisfying while maintaining my weight. When you lose and gain, lose and gain, it will also lower your Basal Metabolic Rate each time. This is the rate of energy you burn just from automatic body functions, such as breathing.  If you are going to yo-yo, it’s better to just maintain your weight.  Make a decision to lose and stick with it.  It has to be a life decision.  How fed up are you about being overweight?

South Beach is harder to do because you are reducing fat, which is the luxury of Atkins and makes you feel sated ,as well as, not deprived as we can eat real butter, cheese, and mayo. On South Beach, you are reducing fat, and also doing low-carb. It’s not as low-carb as Atkins, but Dr. Atkins lowered the carbs low enough to help control cravings and lower the appetite, making it easier to control your eating. You are now controlling your food, instead of the food controlling you.  So, while South Beach may be good for some, Atkins made me feel satisfied, controlled, and also helped me not to feel deprived. I make people jealous with my food!

Low carbing will help to regulate your blood sugar so that it will stay at more of a constant level, rather than spiking and dropping. It has even helped some people drop their medications. However, you should NEVER drop your medications without a doctor’s approval. You should let the doctor know that you are low-carbing and make sure that he tests your blood levels often.