The New Atkins Made Easy by Colette Heimowitz (2013): Food list

 

The New Atkins Made Easy (2013) is a low-carb, ketogenic diet, where you eat whole foods and slowly introduce carbs to find your carb tolerance. The recommendations are very similar to The New Atkins For A New You (2010), with less scientific discussion.

• All phases: Avoid sugar and processed carbs.
• Start with induction, then add unprocessed carbs one type at a time using the Carb Ladder.
• Induction phase 1: Eat proteins, foundation vegetables, fats; average 20 Net Carbs daily.
• Ongoing weight loss phase 2: Add nuts and seeds, then low-carb fruits, then yogurt and fresh cheeses, then legumes; increase carb intake in 5- and 10-gram increments to up to 80 Net Carbs daily.
• Pre-maintenance phase 3: Add other fruits, then higher-carb vegetables, then whole grains; gradually increase Net Carb intake if still losing weight.
• Maintenance phase 4: Keep an eye on carbs to maintain weight.

Below is a description of the food recommendations in the diet. There’s a lot more in the book.

Use this page as a cheat sheet alongside the book. Send this page to friends, family, and anyone else who you want to understand what you’re eating on this diet.

Get a copy of The New Atkins Made Easy for how the Atkins diet works, tips and tricks, meal plans, and restaurant tips, and recipes. Also, get a copy of The New Atkins for a New You Workbook to track what you eat and how much weight you lose, with grocery shopping lists and carb counts. The New Atkins for a New You Cookbook has 200 more recipes to make in 30 minutes or less.

The reasoning behind The New Atkins Made Easy

The book claims that if you restrict carbs sufficiently, your body switches to its backup fuel, fat. Doing Atkins avoids blood sugar spikes and crashes, and rebalances the ratio of fat to carbohydrate, transforming your metabolism from one that stores fat to one that burns fat. And when you’re burning both dietary and body fat, you lose weight. As long as you control your carb intake, eating fatty foods such as avocado and olive oil enables you to slim down. Once you reach a good weight for your height, build, and age, this metabolic shift will continue to keep you slim.

The New Atkins diet plan Made Easy – what to eat and foods to avoid

• General guidelines + foods to avoid on all phases
• Phase 1 induction – kick-start the diet, rung 1 (protein, fat, foundation veggies)
• Phase 2 ongoing weight loss – introduce food types one by one –  rung 2 (nuts and seeds), rung 3 (low-carb fruits), rung 4 (yogurt and fresh cheeses), rung 5 (legumes), and rung 6 (tomato juice and more lemon/lime juice)
• Phase 3 pre-maintenance – introduce food types one by one – rung 7 (additional fruits), rung 8 (starchy vegetables), and rung 9 (whole grains)
• Phase 4 lifetime maintenance – keep an eye on carbs to maintain weight
• Atkins for vegetarians

The Carb Ladder offers a logical progression in which to reintroduce carbohydrate foods as you shed pounds. It also makes it easy to segue through the first three phases of the New Atkins Diet and then transition to a lifestyle that allows you to maintain your new weight. Even once you’ve added back certain foods, you’ll eat those on the lower rungs most frequently and those on the higher rungs less often. If you have a low carb tolerance, you may not be able to eat some of the foods on the top rungs, or you can have them only rarely.

If you’re pregnant, with your doctor’s permission, you can follow Phase 4 (Lifetime Maintenance).

No one under the age of 12 should be put on any weight loss diet before consulting with a pediatrician, as even a heavy younger is growing. Weaning your child off sugar is the single most important thing you can do; if your family starts eating a whole-foods diet, your child will probably lose weight.

If you’re taking certain prescription drugs, check with your physician before starting Atkins. Insulin, some antidepressants, steroids, beta-blockers, diuretic medications for high blood pressure, or insulin.

Essential to success on Atkins is the process of finding the maximum number of grams of carbs you can consume while continuing to lose weight, keep your appetite under control, and stay alert and energized. This number represents your personal carb balance, which is different for each individual. It also typically increases as you lose weight. To find it, you’ll gradually increase both the amount and variety of carbohydrate foods you eat. Then, once you’ve reached your goal weight, you’ll find the maximum number of grams of carbs you can consume while maintaining that weight, staying on top of cravings, and feeling good. This number represents your personal carb tolerance.

You can start in any of the first three phases. If you have just a few pounds to lose, up to about 15, you can probably start in Phase 2 (Balancing) at 25 to 30 grams of Net Carbs a day. If you are heavier, you can also start here, but it could take considerably longer to lose weight without the kick start that you get in Phase 1. You can also begin in Phase 3 (Fine-Tuning) at, say, 45 grams of Net Carbs a day if you have very little weight to lose or are willing to shed it very slowly.

There’s no need to count calories on Atkins, but if your weight loss stalls, do a calorie reality check for a few days. If you follow the meal plans exactly, you don’t need to count carbs to the letter and you’re precise about serving sizes – however counting provides a double check that improves your likelihood of success.

General guidelines

• You count net carbs on this diet. Check the nutrition label and the serving sizes
  • Net carbs = grams of total carbs – grams of fiber
  • Sugar alcohol carbs aren’t counted as carbs
  • Note – in the USA and Canada, “carbohydrates” in food labels includes fiber, so you have to do this calculation. In the EU, fiber is excluded in the carbohydrate count on labels, so you should just use the Carbohydrates on the label without subtracting the fiber number. There is one exception to this rule and this is for the Atkins range of bars & shakes. They contain polyols – or sugar alcohols – which are indigestible carbs. So you do deduct these, however they are clearly shown on the front of every single package we produce, to alleviate any confusion.
• Have three meals and two snacks a day. Never starve yourself or go more than three or four waking hours without eating. If you prefer, have five or even six small meals. You never want to allow yourself to become ravenously hungry
• Eat sufficient protein at every meal, as protein plays a key role in weight loss and protects lean muscle mass
• Don’t restrict fats. Always accompany a carb snack with either fat or protein
• Drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily. Two of these can be replaced with coffee or tea. Another 2 cups can be replaced with beef, chicken, or vegetable broth (not the low-sodium kind)
• Watch out for hidden carbs. Read food labels carefully, particularly on condiments. In restaurants, ask for oil and vinegar to dress your salad, request sauces on the side, and feel free to ask the server what’s in a dish
• If you do overindulge one day, simply return to your current level the next day
• Use sugar substitutes in moderation. That means no more than three packets a day
• The book advises you to use only Atkins low-carb products. Most of these have been tested to ensure that their impact on your blood sugar level is minimal. The majority of them are coded for Phase 1

Atkins foods to avoid in all stages

• Sugars
  • Cane sugar, date sugar, grape sugar, maple sugar, beet sugar, white sugar, brown sugar, yellow sugar, golden sugar, confectioners’ sugar, superfine sugar, castor sugar, icing sugar, raw sugar, Demerara sugar, turbinado sugar, muscovado sugar, caramel, honey, maple syrup, molasses. agave syrup, agave crystals, barley malt, cane juice crystals, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, high-fructose corn syrup HFCS, dextran, dextrose, diastase, diastatic malt, fructose, fruit juice, fruit juice concentrate, galactose, glucose, glucose solids, golden syrup, lactose, maltose, maltol, refiner’s syrup, rice syrup, sorghum syrup, sucrose, treacle
  • Caloric sodas
  • Any food made with added sugar of any sort, including but not limited to pastries, cookies, cakes, and candy
  • Foods containing hidden sugars, e.g. peanut butter, dipping sauces, hoisin sauce, granola bars, cereal bars condensed soups, tomato ketchup, wings, iced tea, flavored yogurt, cranberry juice, pancake syrup. Always check the label
• Meats, poultry, and fish with added carbs or sugar, including breaded, fried, stuffed battered, containing fillers or breadcrumbs or sugar
• “Low-fat” foods, which are usually higher in carbs
• “Diet” products, unless they specifically state “low carbohydrate” and have no more than 3 grams of Net Carbs per serving
• “Junk food” in any form
• Bad fats
  • Any oil that has been subjected to nutrient-destroying high heat during processing. Instead, look for cold-pressed or expeller-pressed oils and store them away from heat sources and direct light
  • Trans fats / hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated on the list of ingredients; shortenings and some margarines. Many commercial baked goods contain trans fats.

Phase 1: Induction (Kick-Start)

What to eat  |  Foods to avoid  |  What if you’re not losing weight

• Strategy: Significantly drop your daily Net Carb intake to an average of 20 (no less than 18 and no more than 22) grams of Net Carbs, the level at which almost anyone begins to burn primarily fat. Of these, 12– 15 grams should be in the form of foundation vegetables
• How long: A minimum of two weeks, but you may safely follow it for much longer if you have a lot of excess weight to lose or prefer to lose most of your excess pounds relatively quickly, using the Fast Track. In this case, you’ll stay in this phase until you’re 15 pounds from goal weight
• Purpose: Shift your body from burning primarily carbs to burning primarily fat, kick-starting weight loss
• Avoid dehydration or electrolyte imbalance. The perfectly normal initial loss of water weight can lead to light-headedness and other symptoms and rob you of energy. These symptoms disappear once you’re burning primarily fat, but in the meantime, be sure to consume sufficient salt in the form of salty broth, salt, tamari, or soy sauce

Atkins phase 1 foods to eat in The New Atkins Made Easy

Rung 1: Proteins, fats, most cheeses, and foundation vegetables— leafy greens and other low-carb vegetables. Rung 2: Dairy foods high in fat and low in carbs— cream, sour cream, and most cheeses. You start on these rungs at the same time – eat all these foods in phase 1.

Protein foods

Eat at least 4-6 ounces of protein per meal; if you’re a tall guy up to 8 ounces is fine. Your daily intake of protein foods will range between 12 and 18 ounces (cooked weight) a day.

• All fish
  • All fish including: flounder, herring, salmon, sardines, sole, tuna, trout
  • Fresh, frozen, canned, or vacuum packed
  • No added carbs – avoid anything deep-fried, stuffed, breaded, battered, or coated in flour; pickled or creamed herring that contains added sugar
• Shellfish
  • All shellfish including: clams, crabmeat, mussels*, oysters*, shrimp, squid
  • *Oysters and mussels are higher in carbs so limit to about 4 ounces per day
  • No added carbs – avoid anything deep-fried, breaded, battered, or coated in flour
• Poultry
  • All poultry/fowl including: Cornish hen, chicken, duck, goose, pheasant, quail, turkey
  • No added carbs – avoid chicken nuggets, breaded cutlets, or anything that has been deep-fried, stuffed, breaded, battered, or coated in flour; chicken or turkey sausages that contain fillers or other high-carb ingredients
• Meats
  • All meat including: bacon*, beef, ham*, lamb, pork, veal, venison
  • *Be aware of processed meat and that some may be cured with sugar, which will add to the carbohydrate count. Also steer clear of meats with added nitrates
  • No added carbs – avoid products that contain fillers and/ or added sugar, including hot dogs, sausage, salami, and bologna; meatballs, meatloaf, Salisbury steak, and anything stuffed with bread crumbs
  • You don’t have to eat meat – if you want you can get your protein from other sources
• Eggs
  • All eggs including deviled, fried, hard-boiled, omelet, poached, scrambled, soft-boiled
  • Each egg contains 0.6 gram of Net Carbs
  • These are very nutritious, and used widely in Atkins breakfasts
• Tofu
  • Not in the phase 1 food list, but mentioned as an alternative if you don’t eat red meat

Fatty foods

• No need to count carbs here. A typical serving size is 1 tablespoon
• Oils and fats
  • Typical serving size is 1 tablespoon
  • Butter, stick or whipped
  • Oils – e.g. canola oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil, grapeseed oil, olive oil (best for sautéing), high-oleic safflower oil, sesame oil, walnut oil
  • Vegetable oils that should not be allowed to reach high temperatures when cooking: soybean oil, sunflower oil
  • Mayonnaise – this contains a minute amount of carbs. Choose a brand made with canola or high-oleic safflower oil, not soybean or vegetable oil, whenever possible. Make sure there is no added sugar
• Cheeses
  • Most cheeses contain less than 1 gram of Net Carbs per ounce and are fine in this phase, with the exception of cottage cheese and ricotta, which you’ll be able to add in Phase 2
  • Don’t exceed 4 ounces a day, the equivalent of four individually wrapped slices or cubes the size of large dice. A tablespoon or two of any grated cheese contains a negligible amount of carbs
  • E.g. blue cheese, brie, cheddar cheese, colby cheese, cream cheese (full-fat or plain), feta cheese, goat cheese/chèvre, gouda, havarti cheese, Jarlsberg cheese, Laughing Cow cheese, mozzarella (whole-milk), Parmesan cheese, romano cheese, sheep’s milk cheese, Swiss cheese, string cheese
  • Select whole-milk products. Avoid low-fat cheeses, “diet” cheese, “cheese products” such as Velveeta and Cheez Whiz, and whey cheese and any cheese flavored with fruit
• Other dairy products and dairy substitutes high in fat and low in carbs
  • Feel free to use up to 1 ½ ounces daily or a total of 2– 3 tablespoons sour cream, unsweetened whipped cream, and liquid cream or half-and-half in your coffee or tea
  • Most so-called creamers are full of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, and all too often they contain unhealthy trans fats as well. There are a few unsweetened nondairy “creamers” without these problematic ingredients, listed in the Atkins Carb Counter
  • E.g. heavy cream (liquid or whipped), light cream, half-and-half, sour cream (full-fat), unsweetened or Sugar-Free MimicCreme Almond & Cashew Crème; unsweetened Original So Delicious Coconut Milk “Creamer”
  • Nondairy milk substitutes, e.g. almond milk, coconut milk beverage (not canned coconut milk), soy milk – you can have a cup at 1– 2 grams of Net Carbs. All should be plain (unflavored) and sugar free
  • Milk is off the menu for the time being

Vegetables (foundation vegetables)

• Your daily minimum of 12– 15 grams of Net Carbs translates to about 6 cups leafy greens and 2 cups cooked veggies
• Try to have both types each day, but have more salad veggies and cut back on cooked ones if you prefer
• Frozen veggies are fine.
• Salad vegetables
  • Low-carb salad vegetables: alfalfa sprouts, arugula, bok choy, cabbage, celery, chicory greens, chives, cucumber, endive, escarole, fennel, jicama, lettuce (all types), mushrooms, parsley, peppers, radicchio, radishes, spinach, sprouts (all kinds), watercress. A cup of each of the these raw salad greens comes in at less than 1 gram of Net Carbs
  • Salad vegetables slightly higher in carbs: artichokes, asparagus, Hass avocados, bamboo shoots, beets, bell peppers (any color), cabbage, celery, cucumber, hearts of palm, olives (black or green), pickles (dill pickles or sour pickles), scallions/green onions, tomatoes, water chestnuts. Consult the Atkins Carb Counter for more details on serving sizes and carb counts
• Vegetables typically cooked
  • Low-carb cooked vegetables: asparagus, broccoli, broccoli rabe, broccoflower / broccolini, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower*, chard*, collard greens, , daikon radishes, eggplant, green beans, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, okra, mushrooms, okra, onions, peas, pumpkin, rhubarb, sauerkraut*, spaghetti squash, spinach*, spaghetti squash, spinach, summer squash*, turnips, zucchini*
  • Half a cup of these cooked veggies contain no more than 3 grams of Net Carbs (be sure to measure them after cooking rather than before). Those with an asterisk have considerably less

Other foods

• Beverages
  • Water – can be bottled, filtered, mineral, spring, sparkling, or from the tap. Add a couple of tablespoons of lemon and/ or lime juice, if you wish
  • Sugar-free vitamin waters with acceptable sweeteners and zero grams of carbs
  • Hot cocoa mixes sweetened with noncaloric sweeteners and mixed with water (and a splash of cream) instead of milk
  • Coffee (caffeinated or decaf, hot or iced) and espresso – one or two cups as desired and tolerated
  • Tea (caffeinated or decaf); sugar-free iced tea (brewed, bottled, or canned) – one or two cups as desired and tolerated
  • If you experience symptoms of hypoglycemia or cravings as a result, do not use caffeine. If you have a true caffeine addiction, it is best to break that habit during the induction phase
  • Herb teas without added sugar or barley
  • Club soda and seltzer (plain and flavored, no calories)
  • Diet cola, ginger ale, root beer, birch beer, and other sodas (sugar-free)
  • Sugar-free fruit refreshers
  • Sugar-free tonic
  • Sugar -free beverage mixes such as Kool-Aid, Crystal Light, and True Lemon
  • Clear broth/ bouillon (make sure there are no sugars added)
• Condiments and seasonings
  • Herbs – all fresh herbs and small amounts of dried herbs – e.g. basil, bay leaves, chives, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and others
  • Spices – most spices and spice mixes such as celery salt, chile peppers, chili powder, coriander, cumin, curry powder, crab/ shrimp boil mix, garlic, ginger, Italian seasoning, liquid smoke, Mrs. Dash, paprika, red pepper flakes, poultry seasoning, Spike seasoning, plus salt and pepper. Avoid spice mixes that contain added sugar
  • Other condiments including bacon pieces,  lemon or orange peel, mustard  (without added sugar)
• Sauces
  • Check the Nutrition Facts panel carefully for added sugars as well as flour and other starches. In cases where the range of carbs can be significant, acceptable brands are listed (which are often specialty products sweetened with sucralose , stevia, or xylitol)
  • A tablespoon of any of these sauces should not contain more than 1 gram of Net Carbs
  • Alfredo sauce, barbecue sauce (Hallman’s or Walden Farms), buffalo chicken wing sauce (Beano’s), cocktail/ seafood sauce (Walden Farms), enchilada sauce (Las Palmas), fish sauce, garlic sauce, horseradish sauce, hot sauce (Tabasco), salsa, taco sauce (green or red), ketchup (Walden Farms), pesto sauce, pasta or pizza sauce (Rao’s Sensitive Formula Marinara Sauce, Walden Farms), sofrito, soy sauce or tamari (San-J tamari, Seal Sama sugar-free), steak sauce and marinade (Trinity Hill), tomato products (tomato sauce, canned or stewed tomatoes, tomato puree, and tomato paste, as long as they contain no added sugar; eg Muir Glen)
• Salad dressings
  • Any prepared salad dressing without added sugar and no more than 3 grams of Net Carbs per 2-tablespoon serving is acceptable. E.g. blue cheese dressing, Caesar salad dressing, Italian dressing, ranch dressing, vinaigrette
  • A lower-carb option is to make your own vinaigrette with olive oil plus either vinegar, lemon juice, or lime juice (you can have up to 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice a day)
• Salad Garnishes
  • No carbs: crumbled bacon, diced hard-boiled egg; herbs and spices (make sure they contain no added sugar) e.g. basil, cayenne pepper, cilantro, dill, oregano, pepper, rosemary, sage, tarragon
  • Some carbs to count: grated cheeses, garlic, ginger, mushrooms, sour cream, any prepared salad dressing with no added sugar and no more than two net carbs per serving (1 – 2 tablespoons is a serving), lemon juice, vinegar
• Noncaloric sweeteners
  • Count each packet as 1 gram of Net Carbs, and consume no more than three per day
  • Although the sweeteners themselves contain no carbs, the powdered agent that keeps them from clumping has a small amount
  • Acceptable noncaloric sweeteners: Splenda (sucralose), Truvia or SweetLeaf (natural products made from stevia), Sweet’n Low (saccharin), xylitol
• Atkins low-carb products
  • All Atkins products are coded for appropriate phases. Bars and shakes acceptable for this phase contain no more than 3 grams of Net Carbs.
  • Because they are meal substitutes, the Atkins frozen meals, which contain from 4– 7 grams of Net Carbs, are all acceptable for Induction. (Some of the frozen meals contain less than 3 grams of Net Carbs from a small amount of Atkins Cuisine Penne Pasta.). You can find Atkins bars and shakes at drugstores and supermarkets as well as online e.g. Amazon Atkins store; also you can find Atkins frozen meals in your local supermarket – search at http://www.atkins.com/Store-Locator.aspx
  • In this phase, you can also have: Atkins Advantage Snack Bars with 2 or 3 grams of Net Carbs; all Atkins Advantage Meal Bars; all Atkins Advantage Ready-to-Drink Shakes; Atkins Day Break Bars with 2 or 3 grams of Net Carbs; all Atkins Endulge Bars (if your carb allotment allows)

You can also eat certain other low-carb foods so long as they contain no more than 3 grams of Net Carbs per serving.

Atkins phase 1 foods to avoid in The New Atkins Made Easy

Avoid foods listed under general foods to avoid, plus these foods:

• Fruit (other than rhubarb, which is really a vegetable). Avocados, olives, and tomatoes—all of which are actually fruit— are fine
• Fruit juice (other than 2 tablespoons lemon and/ or lime juice a day)
• Bread, pasta, muffins, tortillas, chips, and any other food made with flour or other grain products, with the exception of low-carb products with 3 grams of Net Carbs or less
• Alcohol in any form
• Nuts and seeds, nut and seed butters, and nut flours or meals, with the exception of flax meal and coconut flour. (Nuts and seeds are okay after two weeks in Phase 1 if you’re staying on this phase longer for Fast Track weight loss)
• Grains, even whole grains
• Legumes, including kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils, and other legumes
• Starchy vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and winter squash. Check the Atkins Carb Counter if you’re unsure
• Dairy products other than cream, sour cream, half-and-half, and aged cheeses. No cow or goat milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, or ricotta for now
• Low-fat milk products
• Limit products such as chewing gum, breath mints, cough syrups and drops, or liquid vitamins, unless they’re sweetened with sorbitol or xylitol. You can have up to three a day of those. Count 1 gram per piece

What if you’re not losing weight?

If you’re disappointed with your rate of loss, ask yourself whether your expectations were reasonable. While some people can lose up to 15 pounds in two weeks, weight-loss patterns differ significantly from one person to another. Even if you could banish a pound a day when you were in your twenties, it’s unlikely you can do so in your forties. On the other hand, the heavier you are, the more quickly you’ll lose weight. Men usually lose faster than women, as do physically active people. Hormonal issues can make weight loss difficult.

Check these:

1. Are you counting grams of Net Carbs? If you’re just estimating or you’re not taking serving size into consideration, there’s a good chance you’re overdoing the carbs and haven’t kick-started your fat-burning engine. Use your Atkins Carb Counter and track in your journal everything you eat
2. Are you skipping meals or going too long without eating? If so, you may get ravenous and overeat. Be sure to eat a meal or snack every three or four hours
3. Did you consume less than 18 or more than 22 grams of Net Carbs each day? Having too few or too many carbs can interfere with jump-starting fat burning. See #1
4. Are you drinking eight glasses of acceptable liquids? If not, increase your intake, using such tricks as setting the alarm on your cell phone or filling a quart container with water twice a day. Being dehydrated can slow fat burning and produce other unpleasant side effects
5. Did you eat a minimum of 12– 15 grams of Net Carbs from foundation vegetables each day? This is not negotiable
6. Are you eating more than the recommended amount of protein? Unless you’re a very tall man, if you’re eating more than 6 ounces of protein at a single meal, you’re overdoing it
7. Are you holding back on fat? Eating natural fats is essential to turn your body fat into your primary fuel source
8. Did you have more than three packets of sweetener a day? Some people are more sensitive than others to sugar substitutes. Even the small amount of carbs in these products can interfere with weight loss in Phase 1. Cut down to half a packet for each serving, or omit them altogether for a week or two
9. Did you check the ingredients list of any packaged foods or condiments you ate? If not, you may have unwittingly consumed some hidden sugars
10. Are you taking any medications that could interfere with weight loss? If so, review Chapter 2 and discuss with your physician

Other possible reasons and suggestions for overcoming them:

• You’re simply eating too much despite thinking your portions are appropriately sized. Rather than estimate, actually measure your portions and record them
• You have high insulin levels. Insulin is the fat-storing hormone. It may simply take you longer to initiate fat burning by controlling carb intake
• You have an underactive thyroid. If this has been a problem in the past or you suspect it may be now, discuss it with your physician
• Your menstrual period is interfering with weight loss. Some women lose very slowly or not at all right before their period
• Certain medications may interfere with weight loss. Discuss alternatives with your health care provider
• You’re sedentary. Begin some form of exercise, such as walking or swimming, to see if that gets the pounds moving along with you

Phase 2: Ongoing Weight Loss OWL (Balancing)

What to eat  |  Foods to avoid  |  What if you’re not losing weight

When should you move to phase 2?

• Fast track – If you’re motivated by quick weight loss and thrive on structure and a minimum of choices, you may choose to stay in Phase 1 beyond two weeks – continue to consume 20 grams of Net Carbs a day beyond the first two weeks. Try adding nuts and seeds to your list of acceptable foods. Then transition to Phase 2 (Balancing) no later than when you’re within 15 pounds of your goal weight.
• Slow and steady – you may choose to lose the bulk of your weight in Phase 2. You may find that you’re comfortable at a relatively low level of Net Carbs a day, perhaps 25 to 35 grams, which is not all that different from Kick-Start but does allow you to eat additional foods from other rungs. Or you may find you can go considerably higher, say 50 or 60 grams of Net Carbs or even more.

Overview

• Strategy: Starting at 25 grams of Net Carbs daily, begin to increase overall carb intake in 5-gram increments. This means gradually reintroducing a broader array of carb foods as you step up the Carb Ladder, finding your personal carb balance. It could level off anywhere between 30 and 80 daily grams of Net Carbs or even higher. Your personal number is impacted by your age, gender, activity level, hormonal status, and other factors as you continue to lose weight.
• How long: Typically until you’re within 10 pounds of your goal weight, although you can transition to Phase 3 sooner if you’re willing to slow the pace of weight loss.
• Purpose: Lose most of your excess pounds and find your personal carb balance.
• As long as you can control your portions and proceed with caution, you can reorder the introduction of Phase 2 (Balancing) acceptable foods on the Carb Ladder
• Continue to consume a minimum of 12– 15 daily grams of Net Carbs as foundation vegetables. Also continue to avoid foods with added sugar, have eight glasses of water or other acceptable fluids each day, and go no longer than three or four hours between meals or snacks, spreading out your carb intake across the day
• Reintroduce food groups one by one, following the Carb Ladder. Depending on your metabolism and weight-loss goal, this may be at weekly intervals, every couple of weeks, or even longer. Add back carb foods within each rung of the ladder one by one as well. For example, reintroduce walnuts but gauge their impact, if any, before reintroducing almonds. Increase your overall daily Net Carb intake in 5-gram increments at weekly, biweekly, or even monthly intervals, whichever works best for you
• If at any stage your weight loss slowed and you found it more difficult to stay in control, you’re better off remaining at that level without going up another rung on the Carb Ladder
• Continue to track your daily Net Carb intake daily in your journal, also noting any new foods so that you can tell if they are stalling your progress. Continue to weigh and measure yourself weekly

Atkins phase 2 foods to eat in The New Atkins Made Easy

You can eat Phase 1 foods, plus add these other foods:

• Rung 3: Nuts and seeds I (but not chestnuts)
  • First week or longer if you want – average 25 total carbs (check you’re still losing weight at this carb level)
  • Serving size is ¼ cup of nuts or seeds, or 2 tablespoons of nut butter or seed butter
  • Nuts e.g. almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, coconut (fresh or grated and unsweetened), macadamias, hazelnuts/filberts, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts/piñons, pistachios, soy “nuts”, walnuts
  • Seeds e.g. pumpkin seeds/pepitas, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds
  • Peanuts, cashews, and soy “nuts” are not true nuts, but they can also be reintroduced in Phase 2
  • Do avoid chestnuts, which are very high in carbs, and salted nuts, which are notoriously difficult to eat in moderation
  • Also avoid products such as Nutella, which contains added sugars
• Rung 4: Berries, cherries, and melon (but not watermelon)
  • Second week or longer if you want – average 30 total carbs (check you’re still losing weight at this carb level)
  • The fruits suitable for OWL are lower in Net Carbs than most other fruits, because their fiber content is relatively high and fruit sugar content is relatively low. Still, have small portions and always accompany them with fat or protein. Always have berries or other Phase 2 fruits with cheese, cream, Greek yogurt (acceptable in this phase), or nuts to temper their impact on your blood sugar. Or use them to garnish a salad— the oil in the dressing serves the same purpose. Melon with prosciutto is a classic fruit-and-protein combo
  • The following fruits can be fresh, frozen (as long as they’re unsweetened), or canned in water or juice (but not syrup)
  • Berries, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, fresh currants, gooseberries, loganberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries (sour or sweet), unsweetened cranberries and cranberry sauce made with acceptable sweeteners only, melon (cantaloupe melon, Crenshaw melon, and honeydew melon, but not watermelon)
  • You can also have 1-tablespoon portions of berry or cherry preserves that have no added sugar and are sweetened only with acceptable sweeteners
• Rung 5: Whole-milk yogurt and fresh cheeses such as cottage cheese and ricotta
  • Third week or longer if you want – average 35 total carbs (check you’re still losing weight at this carb level)
  • In addition to Phase 1 cheeses and additional dairy products and dairy substitutes, your options now expand
  • Cottage cheese (not low-fat), creamed or curd style; ricotta cheese (whole-milk), yogurt or Greek yogurt (whole-milk, plain, unsweetened), whole milk (fresh, limit to 4 tablespoons), evaporated milk (limit to 2 tablespoons)
  • Always select whole-milk or full-fat dairy products, including yogurt. Low-fat dairy products are higher in carbs
  • Avoid flavored yogurts, which are full of sugar. Instead, add fresh or frozen fruit (unsweetened berries, cherries, or melon), unsweetened cocoa, instant coffee, or unsweetened coconut, plus a sprinkle of an acceptable sweetener, to plain whole-milk yogurt. The Greek type is lowest in carbs
• Rung 6: Legumes, including chickpeas, lentils, and the like
  • Fourth week or longer if you want – average 40 total carbs (check you’re still losing weight at this carb level)
  • Serving size is ¼ cup cooked legumes
  • E.g. black beans/turtle beans, black-eyed peas, chickpeas/garbanzo beans, edamame, fava beans, great northern beans, kidney beans, lentils, lima beans, navy beans, split peas, pinto beans, soybeans
  • Most legumes are sold dried, although a few, such as green soybeans (edamame) and baby lima beans, are usually sold fresh or frozen. (Green and wax beans are foundation vegetables, as are snow peas, meaning they are acceptable in Phase 1.)
  • Avoid products such as baked beans made with added sugar
  • Hummus is a fine choice, but watch out for bean dips made with sugar or starches
  • You may choose to wait to reintroduce legumes until you move to Phase 3
• Rung 7: Tomato and vegetable juice “cocktail” (plus more lemon and lime juice)
  • Fifth week or longer if you want – average 45 total carbs (check you’re still losing weight at this carb level)
  • In Phase 1 you could have 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice; now you can have: ¼ cup lemon or lime juice; ½ cup tomato juice or tomato juice cocktail
  • All other fruit and vegetable juices remain off-limits
• Phase 2 low-carb products
  • Although not part of the Carb Ladder, certain low-carb products can be introduced in this phase, including the Atkins All Purpose Baking Mix and any remaining Atkins shakes or bars with Net Carb counts higher than 3 grams. You can find Atkins bars and shakes at drugstores and supermarkets as well as online e.g. Amazon Atkins store; also you can find Atkins frozen meals in your local supermarket – search at http://www.atkins.com/Store-Locator.aspx
  • You may also be able to have, in moderation, products such as low-carb bread, tortillas, wraps, or chips with no more than 6 grams of Net Carbs per serving. Atkins cannot vouch for the carb counts or ingredients in other companies’ products, so study the Nutrition Facts panel and ingredient list carefully to assess the Net Carb count and find any added sugar or other unacceptable ingredients
  • If any of these foods provoke cravings, stop eating them for the time being
• Alcohol
  • Alcoholic beverages are permissible in Phase 2 (Balancing). Your body burns alcohol, just as it does carbohydrate and fat. In fact, it burns alcohol before fat and after blood sugar (from carbs). So drinking wine, beer, or spirits delays fat burning
  • Assess whether you should drink once you reach OWL: (a) Can you stop at one drink (for women) or two drinks (for men)? (b) Are you willing to drink spirits neat, with club soda or water, or with a sugar-free mixer? (c) Can you moderate your intake of snacks such as salted peanuts or any other food when imbibing? If the answer to any of these questions is no, you’re probably better off waiting until you’re closer to your goal weight to reintroduce alcohol
  • Limit consumption to a maximum of one glass of wine per night
  • Although white and brown spirits (whiskey, rum, gin, vodka, etc.) contain no carbs, a 31/ 2-ounce serving of white, red, or dry dessert wine contains 1, 2, or 4 grams of carbs, respectively. A 12-ounce can or bottle of most beer contains upward of 13 grams of carbs. Low-carb or “lite” beer cuts that to roughly 2.5 or 5.6 grams, respectively.
  • Avoid wine coolers and conventional mixers, which are full of sugar. Fortunately, there are quite a few sugar-free mixers available, e.g. Baja Bob’s sugar-free cocktail mixers, Scales Cocktails, Lt. Blender’s sugar-free cocktail mixers, or Master of Mixes Lite Mixes

Atkins phase 2 foods to avoid in The New Atkins Made Easy

Avoid general foods to avoid, plus:

• Phase 2 foods that have not yet been introduced
  • Low-sugar fruits
  • Whole-milk yogurt and fresh cheeses such as cottage cheese and ricotta
  • Legumes, including kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils, and other legumes
  • Tomato and vegetable juice “cocktail”
• Foods that will in introduced in phase 3
  • Starchy vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and winter squash. Check the Atkins Carb Counter if you’re unsure
  • Grains, even whole grains
• Chestnuts and salted nuts
• Low-fat milk products
• High-sugar fruits, other than those listed as acceptable above
• Fruit juice (other than 2 tablespoons lemon and/or lime juice a day, or ¼ cup lemon and/or lime juice or ½ cup tomato juice if on rung 7)
• Bread, pasta, muffins, tortillas, chips, and any other food made with flour or other grain products, with the exception of low-carb products with 3 grams of Net Carbs or less
• Alcohol should be limited
• Limit products such as chewing gum, breath mints, cough syrups and drops, or liquid vitamins, unless they’re sweetened with sorbitol or xylitol. You can have up to three a day of those. Count 1 gram per piece

What if you’re not losing weight?

Check these:

• Are you counting (not estimating) grams of Net Carbs?
• Are you eating any inappropriate foods?
• Are you supersizing portions?
• Are you overdoing it with berries and/ or low-carb products?
• Are you finding certain foods you can’t eat in moderation?
• Are you adding additional food, meaning that you’re eating more, rather than swapping out other foods (edamame for green beans, for example) to maintain the amount of food?
• Are you eating more than 6 ounces of protein at each meal?
• Have you added all Phase 2 acceptable foods at the same time?
• Have you started drinking wine or beer or using sugar-filled mixers?

Assuming that these queries merit some yes responses, it’s time to make one or more modifications to get back on track:

• Write it down. Carb creep is all too common as you start to reintroduce certain foods. Enter your food choices, amounts, and Net Carb counts in your journal. You may well be consuming more carbs than you think you are
• Play hide and seek. Look for carbs you may have neglected to count, such as in cream, lemon juice, and even acceptable sweeteners (reminder: count 1 gram of Net Carbs per packet). Also be vigilant about reading labels to ferret out hidden carbs in sauces, condiments, and other processed foods
• Abstain for now. Drinking alcohol could be interfering with fat burning. Eliminate it, as well as any trigger foods
• Check your calories. Although there’s no need to count calories on a daily basis, a woman consuming more than 1,800 calories or a man consuming more than 2,200 may simply be eating too much. If you’re not actually on a plateau, you should see weight loss resume once you make the appropriate modifications.

Although it sounds counterintuitive, some people have found that slightly increasing their carb intake or adding a new acceptable food kick-starts weight loss again.

If you’ve had an “indiscretion,” don’t beat yourself up. We all have moments of weakness, and maybe that plate of French fries your friend was eating was more than you could resist. Don’t play the game of “Well, since I’ve already messed up, I might as well go whole hog.” For the rest of the day eat appropriately. Don’t wait until tomorrow to get back on the wagon.

Don’t weigh yourself every day, as your weight can vary by as much as 5 pounds within a single day – once a week is fine. If your body measurements go down, your weight should follow. If you stayed on track but gained a pound or two since the previous week, you’re probably retaining water or are constipated.

Usually cravings vanish by the end of the first week on Induction when you convert to burning primarily fat for energy. There are several reasons they may return. Women sometimes experience cravings a few days before their menstrual period. Going too long between meals or adding foods such as dairy products or peanuts may stimulate cravings. Stress can also destabilize blood sugar, triggering cravings for comfort foods. Adding a bit more fat, in the form of olives, half an avocado, or some cream cheese in a celery stick, can help you feel more satisfied, minimizing cravings.

Phase 3: Pre-Maintenance (Fine-Tuning)

What to eat  |  Foods to avoid  |  What if you’re not losing weight  |  Finding your net carb tolerance

Move to this phase if you’ve lost weight steadily, don’t have cravings or hunger, and are now about 10 pounds from your goal weight.

• Strategy: Gradually increase your daily Net Carb intake in 10-gram (or 5-gram, if you prefer) increments, continuing to reintroduce new carb foods, as long as you continue to slowly lose weight and then to maintain that loss
• How long: Until you’ve reached your goal weight and maintained it for a month
• Purpose: Trim your final excess pounds, continuing to explore your personal carb balance. Then find your tolerance for carb intake while maintaining your new weight. This phase is a dress rehearsal for Lifetime Maintenance
• Continue to consume a minimum of 12– 15 grams of Net Carbs in the form of foundation vegetables, avoid foods with added sugar, have eight glasses of water or other acceptable fluids each day, and go no longer than three or four waking hours without eating, spreading out your carb intake across meals and snacks
• Reintroduce new food groups one by one, following the Carb Ladder. Depending on your metabolism and weight-loss goal, this may be at weekly, biweekly, or even longer intervals. Add back carbohydrate foods within each rung of the Carb Ladder one by one. For example, reintroduce apples but gauge their impact, if any, for a couple of days before adding oranges. Increase your overall Net Carb intake in 10-gram increments (if you’ve been losing weight relatively easily) or 5-gram increments (if weight loss has slowed). Make these increases no more frequently than once a week; you can also do so every two weeks, or even less frequently
• Continue to log your daily Net Carb intake in your journal, also noting any “new” foods so that you can ascertain if any of them are stalling your progress.
• Once you reach your goal weight, remain at that level of Net Carb intake for one month to ensure you can maintain it.

Atkins phase 3 foods to eat in The New Atkins Made Easy

You can eat Phase 1 foods and Phase 2 foods, plus add these other foods:

• Although legumes are acceptable in OWL, you may not have added them back yet. If so, do that before moving to fruit. (See page 113 for suggestions.) On the other hand, if you’re not big on lentils and other beans, simply skip them.
• Rung 8: Other fruits (but not fruit juices or dried fruits)
  • First week or longer if you want – average 50 total carbs (check you’re still losing weight at this carb level)
  • As with the berries, cherries, and melon that you reintroduced in OWL, have these higher-carb fruits in small quantities, starting with one at a time and only once a day
  • Reintroduce fruit slowly and in small amounts, particularly if you’ve been craving it until now. To stay in control: Swap one serving of berries or melon for a serving of higher-carb fruits; have no more than two fruit servings (including berries) a day; always accompany fruit with some fat or protein; start with the lower-carb fruits in this category, such as papayas, peaches , plums, or tangerines; Eat fruits such as bananas, pears, papayas, and mangos before they’re very ripe, to minimize the impact on blood sugar
  • Acceptable fruits: Apples, apricots, bananas, grapes, grapefruit, guava, kiwis, mango, oranges, papayas, peaches, nectarines, pears, plums, pomegranates, watermelon
  • Have fresh or frozen (unsweetened) fruit or fruit canned in water or juice rather than syrup
  • As long as they’re made without added sugar, small portions of jelly, jam, preserves , and fruit preserves made from Phase 3 fruits are also acceptable
  • Tropical fruits such as banana, mango, and plantain are considerably higher in carbs than other fruits, so wait on them until you see how you tolerate other fruits
  • Avoid fruit juice and sweetened applesauce. Note that dried fruits have a much higher concentration of sugar than fresh fruits
  • Save time by picking up packaged cut-up fresh fruit in the produce section. Divide the contents into appropriate portions to eat at home or take to work
• Rung 9: Higher-carb vegetables such as winter squash, carrots, and peas
  • Second week or longer if you want – average 60 total carbs (check you’re still losing weight at this carb level)
  • Serving size is ½ cup cooked vegetables
  • After reintroducing other fruits, it’s time to try to reintroduce the rest of the vegetable family. Like foundation veggies, these roots, tubers, and other veggies are high in fiber and antioxidants; however, they’re higher in carbs
  • E.g. acorn squash, beets, carrots, corn (on or off the cob), Jerusalem artichokes, peas, parsnips, potatoes, rutabatas, sweet potatoes, winter squash, yams
  • Comparable servings of some tropical vegetables such as cassava (yuca), taro, and yautia are significantly higher in carbs
  • Try eating carrots raw instead of cooked, as cooking raises the carb count. Steam potatoes and cauliflower and mash together to mute the carb impact of potatoes.
• Rung 10: Whole grains
  • Third week or longer if you want – – average 70 total carbs (check you’re still losing weight at this carb level)
  • Serving size is ½ cup cooked grains
  • Grains are the last whole-food group to reintroduce. Not everyone can tolerate grains and products made with them, so proceed with caution. And don’t confuse refined grains such as white flour and white rice with whole grains. Baked goods, including bread, pita, tortillas, crackers, and cereals, made with refined grains remain on the “avoid” list indefinitely (with the exception of low-carb products). Such products made with whole grains are acceptable, but the Net Carb counts may vary greatly from one product to another
  • Whole grains include: barley, cornmeal, hominy, couscous (whole wheat), kasha/buckwheat, whole-wheat flour, wheat berries, bulgur, cracked wheat, millet, oat bran, old-fashioned oats, steel-cut oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice, red rice, wild rice
• Dairy
  • You can increase your daily intake of whole milk to ½ cup, but continue to steer clear of low-fat milk and other low-fat dairy products
• Low-carb products
  • You also experiment with low-carb products that have up to 9 grams of Net Carbs per serving. You can find Atkins bars and shakes at drugstores and supermarkets as well as online e.g. Amazon Atkins store; also you can find Atkins frozen meals in your local supermarket – search at http://www.atkins.com/Store-Locator.aspx

Atkins phase 3 foods to avoid in The New Atkins Made Easy

Avoid the “always avoid” foods, plus these foods:

• Phase 3 foods that have not yet been introduced
  • Grains, even whole grains
• Chestnuts and salted nuts
• Low-fat milk products
• Processed grains, including instant oats
• High-sugar fruits, other than those listed as acceptable above
• Fruit juice (other than 2 tablespoons lemon and/or lime juice a day, or ¼ cup lemon and/or lime juice or ½ cup tomato juice if on rung 7)
• Bread, pasta, muffins, tortillas, chips, and any other food made with flour or other grain products, with the exception of low-carb products with 3 grams of Net Carbs or less
• Alcohol should be limited
• Limit products such as chewing gum, breath mints, cough syrups and drops, or liquid vitamins, unless they’re sweetened with sorbitol or xylitol. You can have up to three a day of those. Count 1 gram per piece
• You may want to adjust your goal. If you feel good about yourself at the weight you’ve achieved, terrific. You may have reached your natural weight, which is the one you can maintain easily. Or perhaps your original goal was too modest and you’ve realized that you could actually shave off even more pounds now that you’ve experienced such success on Atkins. If so, there’s no reason not to dial your goal weight down another 10 pounds or so
• Take a break. Or you may decide to hang out at a certain weight for a few months, get comfortable with it, and then take off the final 10 pounds
• Another possibility is that although your weight is a bit higher than you’d originally aimed for, you’ve lost inches and can fit into clothes you haven’t worn in years. The point is that there is no magic number, just the right one for you
• You’ll need to experiment to find your limits. Figuring out which food you can or cannot handle is important for long-term weight control
• Your weight loss may slow to a crawl, perhaps only a half pound a week. This is both deliberate— so that you can expand your carb intake and food choices— and natural. Weight loss obviously slows the closer you get to where your body naturally “wants” to be. And losing slowly gives you time to get really comfortable as you transition to a permanent way of eating

What if you’re not losing weight?

Troubleshooting

• You may experience cravings and uncontrollable hunger as you add back foods you have not eaten in some time. If any food causes cravings, stop eating it for several days before trying to reintroduce it.
• You may wind up on a plateau. If you’ve already experienced one or more plateaus in OWL, you know all about that exercise in delayed gratification. If you’ve been spared this frustrating experience to date, first ascertain that it’s truly a plateau, meaning you’re doing everything correctly. If so, reduce your daily Net Carb intake by 10 grams and wait it out as patiently as you can
• You may stumble upon your Net Carb tolerance for weight maintenance in what initially appears to be a plateau. To see if this is the case, step down 10 grams of Net Carbs daily for at least a week. If weight loss resumes, go up another 5 grams, and so forth.

Finding your net carb tolerance

• To stay at your new weight, you need to know exactly how many grams of Net Carbs you can eat each day. It’s usually 5 or 10 grams higher than the highest personal carb balance number you achieved while still losing weight. You’ll also be assessing the ease or difficulty of keeping your weight constant at that level. The highest level of carb intake you can push yourself to may not be the level at which you’re the most comfortable
• After a month at a steady weight, move on to the lifetime maintenance phase
• If you’re struggling to maintain your weight at this level, simply back down by 5 grams of Net Carbs daily and see if that’s easier to handle. If that doesn’t do the job, go down another 5 grams. This process may involve some trial and error, during which you may also find that you’ve reintroduced certain foods that are giving you problems, perhaps by stimulating cravings or uncontrollable hunger. If you suspect that particular foods are sabotaging your progress, eliminate them for several days to see whether things improve before trying to introduce them again. Once you find the number of grams of Net Carbs that’s sustainable in terms of weight maintenance and the other indicators discussed above, remain at that level for four weeks before moving to Phase 4. Just to be clear, don’t leave Phase 3 until your weight has remained constant for four weeks! This back-and-forth business may seem like a drag now that you’ve reached your goal weight. But knowing exactly what you can and cannot handle enables you to stay in control in the coming months— and years

Phase 4: Lifetime Maintenance

What to eat  |  Foods to avoid  |  Keeping control of your weight

Once you reach your goal weight, remain at that level of Net Carb intake for one month to ensure you can maintain it. You’re ready to move on to Phase 4 – Maintenance when you’re at your goal or adjusted goal weight, your weight has remained constant for the past 4 weeks, and cravings and undue hunger are no longer a problem.

• Strategy: Remain in control of your weight by adjusting your carb intake if your carb tolerance changes or you regain a few pounds
• How long: Ongoing
• Purpose: Transition to a permanent way of eating that allows you to maintain your new weight

Now that you’re maintaining rather than losing weight, you’ll be consuming a slightly larger (with the emphasis on slightly) quantity of food, meaning more daily calories. Your appetite will also increase slightly at this point. As long as you’re close to the weight your body “wants” to be, this is likely to occur naturally. Some people may be able to add more carbs, others may have to make up that extra calorie demand with a bit more fat. You may have to play a little with this adjustment so as to not overshoot the mark and start gaining weight. Continuing to make entries in your food journal should help you figure out which foods help fill you up without stimulating your appetite unnecessarily.

You may need to dial your daily Net Carb count down if: An injury sidelines you for a few months; a change in career puts you behind a desk eight hours a day; you’re prescribed a drug that slows your metabolism; or you enter menopause.

You may need to dial your daily Net Carb count up if: You take up a vigorous sport such as running or tennis; you move to a fourth-floor walk-up apartment; or you’re chasing after a toddler all day long

Atkins phase 4 foods to eat in The New Atkins Made Easy

• In general, the foods you can eat in Lifetime Maintenance are the same ones you’ve already been eating in phase 1 plus phase 2 plus phase 3
• There may be some foods you tried to reintroduce earlier without success that you can now handle. Feel free to experiment at any time as long as your weight remains under control
• Just as there’s great variation in how many carbs people can consume while losing weight, the same applies to weight maintenance. You might not be able to get much beyond 50 or 55 grams of Net Carbs a day (or even less), or you might be at close to 100 grams or more
• Continue to use low-carb products as desired. You can find Atkins bars and shakes at drugstores and supermarkets as well as online e.g. Amazon Atkins store; also you can find Atkins frozen meals in your local supermarket – search at http://www.atkins.com/Store-Locator.aspx

Atkins phase 4 foods to avoid in The New Atkins Made Easy

• General foods to  avoid
• Any foods that give you cravings or make you gain weight

To remain in control of your weight

• Stay at your carb tolerance level, the number of daily grams of Net Carbs you can consume while maintaining your weight. This is the threshold you discovered when you maintained your weight for a month in Phase 3 (Fine-Tuning)
• Continue to have a minimum of 12 –15 grams of Net Carbs in the form of foundation vegetables
• Continue to have 4– 6 ounces of (cooked) protein at each meal
• Aim for no more than two servings of fruit a day
• Continue to see fat as your friend and integral to weight management
• Combine carbohydrate foods with fat and/ or protein to moderate your blood sugar response
• Continue to drink plenty of water and other noncaloric beverages
• Adjust your carb intake if you become less (or more) active
• Distinguish between hunger and habit
• Continue to weigh and measure yourself once a week
• Never let yourself gain more than 5 pounds (unless you become pregnant) without taking immediate action
• Add new foods one at a time to gauge their impact on cravings and appetite
• Engage in regular physical activity
• Portion out ahead of time any foods, such as nuts or cheese, that you might be tempted to overeat
• Keep reading labels, especially on any new foods
• Stay alert to the possibility of carb creep
• Plan ahead if you decide to take an occasional departure from your low-carb lifestyle

Atkins for vegetarians

If you’re a vegetarian, start Atkins in Phase 2 (Balancing), at 25–30 grams of Net Carbs a day so that you can get sufficient protein. Most vegetarian sources of protein also contain carbs, unlike most animal products. Follow the Induction, but include nuts and seeds from the start.

The following protein products are acceptable, but check the Nutrition Facts panel and the Atkins Carb Counter for Net Carb counts and serving sizes. Veggie burgers, for example, can vary dramatically in carb count, depending upon ingredients.

• Quorn cutlets, burgers, roast – unbreaded only
• Tofu – firm, silken, or soft, not marinated
• Tofu bacon, Canadian bacon, hot dogs, or sausage
• Tempeh (without grains)
• Seitan
• Shirataki soy noodles
• Veggie burgers, crumbles, or meatballs

Health benefits claimed in The New Atkins Made Easy

The diet in this book claims to reduce the risks for: cancer, coronary heart disease, dementia, depression, diabetes, prediabetes, epilepsy, eye diseases, fatty liver, gastrointestinal problems, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, inflammatory diseases, learning disabilities, memory problems, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, overweight/obesity

As always, this is not intended to be a replacement for professional medical diagnosis or treatment for a medical condition. Consult your doctor before starting a new diet. This page describes what the authors of the diet recommend – Chewfo is describing the diet only, not endorsing it.

Get a copy of The New Atkins Made Easy for how the Atkins diet works, tips and tricks, meal plans, and restaurant tips, and recipes.
Diet book
Also, get a copy of The New Atkins for a New You Workbook to track what you eat and how much weight you lose, with grocery shopping lists and carb counts.
Workbook / food journal
The New Atkins for a New You Cookbook has 200 more recipes to make in 30 minutes or less.
Cookbook
Carb counters and resources

• See www.atkins.com for a carb counter, low-carb products, meal planners, forums, recipes, and more.
• Get the app for carb trackers, food searches, progress tracking, daily meal plans, recipe database, and dining out guides – the Google Atkins app and the Apple Atkins app.

How has this diet helped you? Please add a comment or question below.