Atkins Diet

tam21

Does anyone know of a way of making this way of eating a little (or preferably a lot!) cheaper?
I'm going to be eating a high protein low carb diet for the next 6 months or so, which obviously involves a lot of meat, cheese and eggs and my food bill is going through the roof.
Aside from raising my own chickens is there a cheaper way of buying these things? I do pretty much all my shopping in Tesco at the moment, but I am buying the bulk packs to hopefully save a bit, but it's still extortionate!! :eek:

flippin_fed_up

I lost 3 stone on the Atkins diet, it's the only diet I never felt hungry on. I never found a cheap way of doing it though, like you I found it expensive but it's something I put up with because of the results. Good luck.

bristol_pilot

I also lost a lot of weight on the Atkins diet and it is the only diet I never felt hungry on. Low-carb diets seem to work by making you feel full so that you consume less calories without being hungry. So your portion size could be much less than you normally eat and you cut out alcohol (meaning fewer nights out and restaurant meals) so there are a few areas of potential cost saving. But this is an expensive diet, I'm afraid.

tam21

Thanks to both of you - we pretty much don't drink alcohol anyway though, and nights out are rare (courtesy of the sprog :rolleyes: ) but think I will just have to stick at it and bear the cost for a few months. Thanks anyway!

pigeonpants

I also lost over a stone in a very short time last year, although for some reason my tolerance to alcohol reduced drastically and during a meal out with friends aftera couple of beers and two glasses of wine I callopsed and my friends thought they woould have to administer mouth to mouth. So take care whilst on the diet.

liney

I don't want to preach, but you do understand that bad cholestrol comes from animal produce, which is effectively all you will be eating.

tam21

Hi liney, thanks for your reply, I have looked into this diet a lot before embarking on it and research over the past couple of years has shown that a high protein/fat low carb diet actually not only decreases cholesterol levels at much the same level as a low fat diet, but also increases the proportion of HDL compared with LDL and in addition brings about a drop in triglycerides more than double that resulting from low fat diets (Westman 2004).

Here's hoping, anyway!

BernadetteN

My husband is doing another Atkins type diet and I shall join him in a few months - I'm not very good at losing weight post baby but I'm still breastfeeding so not a good time to alter diet.

We have eaten loads of green vegetables, just about replaced pasta/rice with broccoli, lots of cucumbers and dips made with creme fraiche, green salad with Caeser dressing, tinned sardines, eggs eggs eggs, low card sausages, bacon, cheese. You can make it rather expensive if you eat steak and salmon every day but we have managed to find plenty of vegetables and other protein sources which are cheaper.

What we found hardest was finding low carb snacks hard to find - we ate quite a few cucumbers and cocktail sausages and cheese strings. However, we did end up eating less too after about a week as there was far lesser feeling of hunger and craving for carbohydrates so we ate less snacks and ate less at meal times and the cost decreased that way.

tevangelynne

are you allow veg etc on the atkins diet and cocktail sausages

System

I too lost a significant amount of weight on this eating plan and it also resulted in the regulation of my periods to 28 days after years of them coming when they felt like it due to Polycystic ovary syndrome.

I found that it was a little more expensive initially but you will notice a reduction in your appetite so your portion sizes will reduce.


Liney contrary to what a lot of people believe "good" carbohydrates are consumed on this plan after the 1st 2 weeks. Atkins encourages the consumption of a range of green vegetables, berries and whole grains, starting off with small amounts and building up gradually. In fact the carbohydrates suggested by Atkins are more or less the same as those suggested by mainstream nutritionists ie: non refined and no sugar.

BernadetteN

tevangelynne wrote:

are you allow veg etc on the atkins diet and cocktail sausages

Yws. I think the starting mark for the first 2 weeks is 40g a day of carbohydrates, then you slowly up the carbs.

We became avid readers of labels on food. Eventually after the first 2 weeks, we just stuck to things that have no more than 5g per 100g of carbohydrates and it worked easier than carrying a carb counting book around the supermarket. Most green veg are very low in carbohydrates. Sausages are harder to keep low carb and we had to buy mainly the "best of " varieties as they are filled with more meat and less carb filler ingredients - the Tesco finest sausages range contained about 2g per 100g of carbs I think I remember.