Everywhere I look there are articles about weight loss, how to lose weight, how other people have lost weight. I saw this the other day, about the Atkins diet:

1. The restrictive induction phase

You eat only a minimal amount of carbohydrates during this phase - around 20g of 'net carbs' a day [total carbs - fiber] - and will experience fairly rapid weight loss as your body switches from burning carbohydrates to fat. You should do this phase for two weeks, but you can do it for up to a maximum of six months, depending on how much weight you would like to lose.

2. The Ongoing Weight Loss Phase (OWL)

You slowly add a greater variety of carbohydrate food by 5g a week and will discover exactly how much carbohydrate you can eat while still losing weight. You stay in OWL until you have only five to ten pounds left to lose before reaching your ideal weight.

3. Pre-maintenance

You increase your carbohydrate intake by 10g a week, as long as you still keep losing pounds or inches. Your weight loss will slow to a crawl, but this is exactly what you want if your goal is permanent weight control.

During this phase, you will reach your goal weight. Once you have maintained it for a month, you are ready to move on to Lifetime Maintenance - not so much a phase as a permanent way of eating.

Wondering how this matches my current eating, I examined my default breakfast: a chocolate no-sugar-added Instant Breakfast that I make with about a half-cup of Rice Dream (to get it to dissolve) and a cup of Silk soymilk with Omega-3 DHA; and two Metamucil wafers, b/c aging is such a wonderful thing, really.


Instant Breakfast: Carb, 12g Fiber, 4g Net carb, 8g
1/2 cup Rice Dream: Carb, 13g Fiber, 0g Net carb, 13g
1 cup Silk: Carb, 8g Fiber, 1g Net carb, 7g
Metamucil wafer: Carb, 17g Fiber, 9g Net carb, 8g
Total 36g net carb


Dang, yo.