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Knowing that it will get better in a few days helps. I have to get this weight off.

Do you guys still have cravings, or have they completely disappeared? Can you just pass up dessert with ease now?

Doll, the cravings WILL go away. Pretty soon you'll start craving things that are good for you. When that happens, eat them - in moderation. If I get a bit hungry in the middle of the afternoon, I'll grab a slice of smoked cheddar. Just one slice. Or eat a couple of olive-oil drenched artichoke hearts.

After a couple of weeks the thought of sweets will make you sick.

Michael

Knowing that it will get better in a few days helps. I have to get this weight off.

Do you guys still have cravings, or have they completely disappeared? Can you just pass up dessert with ease now?

The cravings will go away. Excuse me for butting in here. I've been on Adkins for five years, am at my target weight, and vary five pounds on either side.

In my case, I make sure to have a "cheat" meal once a week. Anything I want (Mexican food with chips, enchiladas, etc.) That way, I know I can still have stuff I really like. And I don't give up dessert; a bowl of strawberries with Cool Whip on top has about five carbs, and tastes wonderful. You can use blueberries too, but stay away from bananas and pears and oranges..too much natural sugar.

Stick to it. In my case, it took me nearly nine days on the Adkins plan to lose a pound, but, after that, it started falling off at the tune of three pounds a week.

And, I didn't do the induction phase, so I never got to "ketosis." Just eliminating sugars and flours and starchy stuff like potatoes worked in my case.

I like this eating plan (it's not a "diet") because I'm never hungry.

For snacks, I get some beef jerky through Robertson's (the best beef jerky in America, IMO, and they're on the web) or eat a handful of almonds.

And, I drink two glasses of wine every night, too. White wine has 3 grams of carbs in a four ounce glass.

Good luck. Need encouragement, just FReepmail me.

You can do this, and you'll feel like a million bucks without all that sugar in your blood stream!

First of all, remember you can eat more, within the guidelines. Get some of those Atkins bars, they're pretty yummy. Check out www.vitaglo.com -- incredible selection, good prices, good service, no tax if you're not in (I think) NY, no shipping for orders over $50. You may want food you can't eat, but you needn't be genuinely hungry, EVER, on Atkins.

Second, my honest answer is that I do look to God for discipline in not dwelling on the things I can't eat, and fixing such for my kids is not the funnest thing I do all day. But that having been said, the time that takes in the average day is NOTHING. I'm looking forward to the bar, to the steak, to the ham, to the salad, to the turkey, to the chicken, to the mayonnaise, to a few peanuts. I'm not lying or exaggerating: I used to eat all the time, be hungry all the time, and I weighed, well, a lot. I'm never craving, I'm virtually always really satisfied, I feel great. It isn't a fraction of the the problem I thought it'd be.

And now that I'm past induction, although because of how much I still have to lose I stay near it, I can do this and that, with allowances.

Short summary answer: cravings are not a problem, I feel great and am delighted with and grateful for the diet. To my GREAT AND ONGOING surprise.

Dan

Thanks to both of you. This morning I feel like something's missing and my breakfast didn't quite satisfy me. Of course, my mind is racing from cereal to donuts to pancakes, so that's not helping anything. I'm trying to stay committed, but I was an absolute slave to carbs and cravings. Knowing that it will get better in a few days helps. I have to get this weight off. Do you guys still have cravings, or have they completely disappeared? Can you just pass up dessert with ease now?

Hang in there! Don't give in to those cravings! They do pass :) For me day 3 and 4 were the hardest, the withdrawal headache was horrible, but what I did on those days was to eat small frequent snacks of fat/protein and drink LOTS of water.

Keep in mind that on the other side of this discomfort is freedom from those cravings and constant nagging urge to eat.

If you get a headache take something for it, it's just a couple of days of discomfort that is worth the benefits of commitment.

Also, people are very creative when they have to be. There are tons of recipes on the web that someone has figured out how to modify their favorite foods to fit the plan. You will be surprised that you really don't have to give up as much as you thought you did.

I started Atkins in Jan 2002 at 314 lbs. I wore a 48 waist and XXX shirts.

I now weigh 195, wear 36 waist and med shirts. Have not felt this good in 30 years.

As someone posted earlier, I am now able to exersize without pain on a regular basis because of the weight loss. My goal is to loose another 25 lb of fat and put on 10 to 15 lbs. of muscle.

Yes, it gets easier to pass up dessert, breads, etc. because you do not have the cravings created by the sugars and you feel so good that you don't want to go back.

Good luck!!

108 - "Do you guys still have cravings, or have they completely disappeared? Can you just pass up dessert with ease now?"

The cravings mostly disappear after 2-3 days, but the 'taste' desire remains for a few weeks longer, so I recommend you get some 'high taste', low carb foods, such as a spicy soup - I particularly enjoy 'Healthy Choice', Chicken and Rice Soup, and their 'Gumbo'. Be careful though, as they do have carbs. You might wish to first try some of the high protein - low carb liquid 'chocolate shake' drinks, which taste sweet, but arent. They are pretty good. But once you get over the initial loss of your cravings, it is smooth sailing, as long as you don't eat any carbs much, which will renew your cravings, the 'taste' craving takes much longer to get rid of. But after about 3 weeks, even this pretty much goes.