A great number of newbies complain of feeling badly during the first few weeks of low carb. The complaints run the gamut from being weak and light headed to having severe headaches. This is quite typical. The upside is that it’s temporary and easily remedied. After a few days on low carb your body uses up it’s stores of glycogen and begins to use ketones for fuel instead. Combine this with all the water you’ve been drinking and you flush all the electrolytes out of your system. Get thee to a local health food store and get some potassium / magnesium / calcium to restore those levels. You’ll be feeling like new very soon.

Speaking of water. Yes you do need to drink all that water. The standard advice is to drink a minimum of 64 ounces per day PLUS 8 ounces for each 25 pounds you wish to lose. Water helps flush out impurities and fat from your body. You can read more here:

Water Article

Can you count diet soda or coffee into your daily water intake? You shouldn’t – pure water does the job best.

So now you’re feeling better and have lost some weight – GREAT!! But it stopped and you’re panicking!! Relax – THIS IS NORMAL. The initial weight loss is water that was being held in the muscles. Soon comes the real weight loss. One thing to keep in mind (and I could repeat this till I’m blue in the face and people still wouldn’t listen) is that weight loss IS NOT linear. You will not lose 2 pounds per week every week until you get to goal. Your weight losses will fluctuate from day to day but generally the overall trend is down. Don’t get fretful over the daily drama of up 1 pound one day and down 1 pound the next. It’s a quick way to drive yourself batty and get discouraged.

You’ll find some great recipes out there on the net for low carb foods and treats. Tread carefully here though. Hidden carbs add up and before you know it you’re woefully posting that you haven’t lost a thing in weeks. Despite what some people say there are NO free foods except plain old unprocessed meats and water. Cheese, heavy cream, cream cheese, nuts, eggs, fruits, & veggies etc… all have carbs. Cheese has an average of 1 gram per 1 ounce – that’s just about a 1 inch cube. Heavy cream has 6.6 grams carb per cup. A large egg has .6 gram carb. That’s not much until you make a plate of deviled eggs for snacking and then eat them all in one day. (Hey don’t laugh – I did that once !)

Treats made with a lot of dairy and artificial sweeteners are often the cause of stalls and slow downs in weight loss. Use them as sparingly as possible.

Wait a minute you say… the label on the heavy cream carton says “0 Carbs” per serving. Well – yeah – look at the serving – it’s tiny! The law says manufacturers can label anything under either .5 gr. or 1 gr. per serving as “0”. By fiddling with the serving size they can make the numbers pretty much do what they want. To get a true carb count on any food at all go here: USDA Nutritional Database

What else has hidden carbs? Oh my sweet innocent, brace yourself. Ya know those pre packaged low carb protein bars and “zero carb” chocolate bars? Yep you guessed it – loaded with hidden carbs. The average protein bar made with glycerin really has about 17 to 20 grams carb not the 2.5 most advertise. To learn how to do the math and figure out how to figure carb counts yourself go here: Hidden Carbs This formula works on anything from pre packaged low carb stuff to your average jar of peanut butter etc…. Go grab a jar of spaghetti sauce from your cupboard and try it out.

OK, back to those newbie questions. Do you have to do blood work before starting low carb? Well……….. I’ll be honest here I didn’t. But I sure wish I had and here’s why. I’ve had my blood work done recently and I know my lipid profile is great after all these years of LC but it sure would be great to have the proof in writing of how much those numbers have improved after losing 90 lbs.

That brings us to your kidneys. We continually joke around on the newsgroup and in other places about our kidney’s falling out. I’m so tired of hearing news reports coming out saying that low carb will ruin your kidneys when there is no documented proof that this has EVER happened. To quote Lyle McDonald in his book “The Ketogenic Diet” (page 77) “Overall there is little data to suggest any negative effect of ketogenic diets on kidney function or the incidence of kidney stones” and further down “With regards to the protein issue, it should be noted that kidney problems resulting from a high protein intake have only been noted in individuals with preexisting kidney problems, and little human data exists to suggest that a high protein intake will cause kidney damage”. So, if you already have kidney damage, check with your dr. first and if you don’t you can join me in thumbing my nose at all the nay sayers !

One thing that is confusing to most new low carbers is supplementation. I know it was to me when I started. Since what supplement YOU should be taking will differ from what I take and what the next person takes I’ll refer you to several sources and you can read and decide for yourself what you want to do.

Lynne's Supplement Page

This is Lynne Axiak’s page. Lynne is an RN and has a great page. Go to the section marked “Some questions people have asked” and then click on the link for vitamins.

Lets also not forget this book, which is a great source to personalize your supplementation plan. Dr. Atkins Vita-Nutrient Solution (ISBN # 0-684-84488-5) It’s paperback and only about 13 bucks if I recall.

That brings us to ketosis. What is ketosis ? Ketosis is often confused with ketoacidosis, which is a diabetic condition. They are NOT one and the same.

Some people use ketostix to monitor if they are in or out of ketosis. Everyone has their opinion on these things. I personally have never used them and still found success. Others need that visual reinforcement of seeing the stick turn purple. If you do use them remember this, it doesn’t matter the color of purple. You’re either in ketosis or you're not, any color change is fine. Contrary to popular belief, darker purple does not indicate deeper ketosis – it usually indicates you’re not getting enough water !! I can usually tell when I’m in ketosis anyway – I have the keto-breath (yuk) and a metallic taste in my mouth.

Either way, one thing to know about ketones in the urine and ketostix is this: Ketone bodies circulate in and are used from our bloodstream. Any ketones that show up in the urine are simply spillover from ketones unused from the bloodstream. Some people use up all the ketones they produce for fuel leaving none to spill over into urine. They are still in ketosis, there just wasn’t enough left over to show up on the stick they just peed on. Ya see?

OK – we’re almost there – I know this is getting long. Next up is FAT !! Yes we were all trained that fat is evil and we should live in a low-fat tasteless world. Well most of us have tried that and know that our LC way is much better on all counts. To read an excellent primer on fats go here: Krista on Good Fats

Then go here and learn why we should all sip good omega 3 and 6 oil !! The Lowcarb Retreat on Sipping Oil

And fiber ?? Yes – more links for you to peruse !! Fiber !

This one too !

Fiber Part Deux

Alright we’re coming into the home stretch. Caffeine, Artificial Sweeteners, & Alcohol. There is no hard and fast rule for these things. They seem to be a YMMV thing (your mileage may vary) for just about everyone. My advice is experiment with them to see if you appear to be sensitive to them.

Some people claim caffeine helps them rev the metabolism and aid in weight loss – others claim they must avoid it. Artificial sweeteners can cause problems. In some people (like myself) the reaction to the AS is just the same as if we consumed regular old sugar – elevated insulin levels & cravings. Others seem to be able to use them in moderation with no problems.

Alcohol, enjoyed occasionally, is theoretically ok as long as we stick to dry wines, very lite beer and hard liquors. The problem arises when we go a little overboard and our inhibitions are lowered enough that we start to listen to the little voice in our head that says “Hey – go ahead and have those breaded wings”.

Additionally, remember that the alcohol in your system will always be burned for fuel before fat so be prepared to not see lower numbers for a few days.

Here is some final advice and a few pointers for you. Don’t compare yourself to other low carbers in relation to how fast they are losing or what foods they seem to do well with. Each one of us is different. What got me where I am is going to be different from what got Joe Blow where he is today.

Here are more tips from my web page: Tips & Pointers

If I had to condense everything down into once concise sentence it would be this: Focus on unprocessed meats, LOTS of veggies, eggs, good oils & dairy in moderation, don’t eat low carb pre-packaged fake foods, get enough fat to keep you satiated, and measure – measure- measure yourself in addition to using the scale as reference.